08.23.08
Two more down!
Neither bills were huge, but I paid off a small bill ($40) that’s been hanging around my neck and paid off another credit card ($212). I have a ways to go, but it feels good to make progress.
08.21.08
I avoided using my savings
I had a surprise bill this week that I paid with my blow money. It wasn’t a lot – $25 – but when that’s your blow money for the week, that’s pretty much it. So, I had a little extra money leftover from groceries that got me through the week. I mean a little — less than $10. I really didn’t like only having that much cash on hand, but I resisted the urge to use what little money I have in savings at the moment ($130). I don’t have a lot there and am getting it up to $1k, and don’t want to start taking it out here and there. That’s not what it’s for.
So, I got through the week and will get my check cashed in the morning and I’ll have that extra wiggle room of my blow money. Although I felt a little nervous this week, everything was fine. My car had gas (budgeted), I had food every day for lunch (budgeted groceries and cooked meals), my public transportation for the month is paid for (monthly pass, budgeted), and I’m down to getting Starbucks once a week at the most (budgeted).
It feels good to know that I was able to do it.
08.16.08
Homemade cleaners
For quite a while it has annoyed me that too much of our household budget goes to cleaning supplies. I know a lot of people make their own but I wondered if they actually worked. I’m getting tired of spending the money, plus I’m trying to find relatively easy ways of being a bit more envrionmental friendly, so I’m going to give it a try. Looks like most of them involve inexpensive household ingredients such as rubbing alcohol, baking soda and vinegar. I’m going to try making a few and using them, with a few rules in place:
1. We tend to buy bleach to use for some things, so I won’t have ammonia in the house. I don’t like having both hanging around. I did find some recipes for glass cleaners that used rubbing alcohol and not ammonia, so that’s what I’ll use. The smell of ammonia alone really gets to me, makes me lightheaded and fuzzy, so I’ll stick with bleach. I actually like the bleach smell — reminds me of chlorine and my competitive swimming days, lol.
2. Depending on how much so-called “elbow grease” it takes for some of these to work, I still may use store-bought cleaners when needed for tougher cleaning when I procrastinate. Of course, the way around that is not to procrastinate, but I’m also trying to be realistic. My wrists, hands and now elbows aren’t as good as they should be and huge amounts of scrubbing will haunt me for days. I’d honestly rather pay a little and not be as “green” on those occasions then pay physically for days afterward.
3. I found some inexpensive essential oils at the Puritan’s Pride website that I think I’ll use for some cleaners so that everything doesn’t smell like vinegar. I’m going to research if there’s anything I shouldn’t mix the oils with, but I think it should be OK. I’m thinking of going with lemon or orange as a start.
4. I will still use store-bought laundry detergent. There’s no way I can get Tim to use homemade stuff for his clothes. He works in a factory and won’t use anything but Tide.
08.15.08
Good and bad of the week
The Good
1. Tim usually gives me $x a month for his half of the bills. Well, since I’ve been cooking so much he hasn’t been ordering out nearly as much as in the past, nor buying snacks, so he gave me $80 toward the bills yesterday. I told him I was OK and didn’t need it, but he wanted me to have it anyway. I told him it was going into savings and he was happy about that. This is new for me — getting extra money and immediately putting it into savings because I have enough of everything, including a little cash, to get me through until I get paid next Friday.
The Bad
2. Fell off the Starbucks wagon a bit this week. Instead of going over there once, I went over there three times. Oy. I blame the Olympics because I was staying up late each night watching my favorite events, swimming, diving and gymnastics. Well, I really don’t blame them because I know it’s my own fault and I could have had some extra tea, but the Starbucks gave me a bit more of a jolt. I will be back on my once-a-week schedule next week.
08.10.08
Well, that’s one way to get motivated
I’ve already been remotivated to get money into savings and get my debt paid off, but today clinched it. We had a tornado warning, a serious one. I know, a lot of places get tornado warnings every day for weeks at a time it seems, but I’m not used to it at all. On the radar map it was all red with that dark red/black color in the center. Yikes. I can handle snow, ice, wind, rain, even heat and humidity (though I hate it), but I’m not used to tornadoes and it freaked me out a little. Some parts around here got almost baseball-sized hail, but we didn’t get any hail at all, thank goodness!
It also made me realize why I’m working on becoming debt-free and saving money. I’m looking forward to the day when I can feel some comfort knowing that, in a crisis, I have my ducks in a row. Both Tim’s and my cars were out in the parking lot and we could have lost them, too. They are paid-for and have minimal insurance, one’s a 1991 the other’s a 1995. However, we don’t have the money to replace them even with a very inexpensive car and that really would been a problem. I can always take public transit to work, but where Tim works and with his crazy schedule it’s almost impossible.
Good wake-up call. I’m glad I was already waking up, but this really brought me to full attention.
08.09.08
Doing well in August
I should post my budget here in addition to writing it my notebook, to help me be accountable. In the meantime, however, I have the following little items that are making me happy at the moment:
1. It’s the end of the first week of August, and I already have my new registration stickers (due at the end of August) and my car inspected (due in October). Usually I’m one to do both of these things at the last minute, but I got them both done early and didn’t have to sacrifice other bills or put anything on a credit card to do it.
2. I renewed my AAA membership. I love my 1991 Corolla, but realize things go wrong so this really helps my peace of mind.
3. I have $50 in savings. Not much, but it’s a start. Saving money is the hardest thing for me to do, so the money is currently encased in ice in a small container in my freezer. LOL. I see people do that with credit cards and figured it would help with my savings. That way I either have to melt it or break through the ice to get to it and it will give me just a little more time to really think about needing to spend it. I will be adding more to it as I go along.
4. Just ordered my groceries online for the next two weeks, except for produce that I buy as I need it. The $10 I spend for delivery is sooooo worth not having to fight my way through the store or getting sidetracked by items not on my list. I went through the sales then decided my menus for the next two weeks, which really helps. I don’t go totally nuts, as it’s important to me that we eat well, not just cheaply. There’s a lot of inexpensive food out there that is absolutely horrible for us, so I’m OK spending a little more to eat in a relatively healthy manner.
5. My utilities are paid for the month, rent of course has been taken care of for August, I have my public transportation pass for the month, and I have a little extra for the next two weeks for my Avon order and a once-a-week treat from Starbucks.
6. Almost forgot — I’m also paying off another credit card this month! I know, technially that $350 should go to my savings. However, it’s a settlement offer and is less than half of what I actually owe on that account, so I’m going to take advantage of it and get it out of the way.
